


painting flowers

by nikkixroman



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Boyfriends, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Give me a break, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I swear, Insecurity, M/M, No Beta, Really poorly written, Space Gays, before shiro went missing in s2, body painting but not really, it's worth the read, its 1 am guys, keith calls shiro by his first name when they're in private, keith is an artist but idk how he got his paint supplies dont ask me, keith loves him enough for the both of them, pre-season 3, prosthetic painting, shiro hates himself, shiro likes it because his name sounds so pretty when keith says it, spoiler free, this is super short
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 13:51:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11761260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikkixroman/pseuds/nikkixroman
Summary: "if nothing is true, what more can i do?i am still painting flowers for you."- all time low, painting flowersif there’s one thing shiro noticed about keith, it’s that he softly hums while painting. normally, the red paladin wouldn’t let anybody see what he was painting, but it was difficult for shiro not to see what it was when HE is the canvas.





	painting flowers

**Author's Note:**

> howdy partners it's 1:30 am and I wrote this instead of sleeping or doing replies on tumblr ( hmu @ omegalomaniiiac ) :D  
> sorrY this is so bad but I have so many emotions for Sheith, I will go down to the pits of hell with this ship honestly??? anyways, i hope you enjoy this, feel free to comment!!

Ever since Shiro escaped the grasps of the Galra, he’d tried his hardest to forget everything about the period of time spent with them. Unfortunately, his prosthetic arm made that exceedingly difficult. As much as he hates the hunk of metal in place of his arm, he knows that it’s a remarkable piece of tech, as Pidge so often comments when he needs maintenance on it. The arm had it’s perks: the strength, the ability to burn or cut through nearly anything, the lack of pain when it gets banged up. Aside from that, Shiro considered every other aspect of the arm to be a burden, especially how he got the damn thing. Every night, he thanked whatever god happens to be up there for his freedom, that he was able to successfully escape that hell. Whenever Shiro had a day to himself, though, those memories crowded his mind until that’s all he could think about, and trying to remove his Galra arm was all he wanted to do.

Days off themselves were rare so Shiro rarely had those thoughts, but it did happen. If the paladins weren’t in combat, they were training, planning, or planning their training. There always seemed to be something to do. During the days off that they did have, Shiro almost always spends his time with Keith. Usually they sat around, talked, ate, anything that seemed fun in the spur of the moment. Today, though… today was different.

Shiro should have been suspicious when Keith came to his room with paint supplies and no canvas, but he didn’t think that far ahead.

“Can I try something?” The red paladin’s voice was quiet, almost nervous as he posed the question. Shiro raised an eyebrow.

“What is it you want to try?”

Keith entered the room fully, placing the art supplies on the bed next to Shiro. His tone was laced with determination.

“I want to paint your prosthetic.”

Shiro thought it was pointless, Keith was wasting his time with someone as unworthy of such dedication and affection as he. after all, Shiro’s the champion; he’s a weapon.   
Weapons don't deserve affection.  
  


-

"C'mon, Takashi. just a little longer."

He'd heard those words too many times today. When his boyfriend asked to paint his Galra arm, he was wary of it but ultimately agreed. Shiro sat quietly on the bed next to a kneeling Keith, hard at work covering up the metal of his forearm with bursts of color. He noted his most used color was red. Normally, he would object to anybody touching his prosthetic, but Shiro's boyfriend sounded so intent on painting it, so sure that it would make him feel better that he just couldn't tell him no. (It also helped that he is utterly and completely whipped for Keith.)  
  
Being so close to Keith made him think about how they got to this point, and it made him smile. All of the memories leading up to now were a trail mix of good and bad, life-threatening and death-defying. Shiro thought about how much the paladin meant to him: if his world was complete darkness, Keith would be the one light he yearned for, the one light he needed to survive.  
  
Half a varga passed when Keith announced that he was done, and that Shiro could finally look at his arm to see the fresh work of art.

“A flower?” Shiro looked quizzically at his forearm, a beautiful flower taking up almost half of the space.

“It’s a red tulip. I was with Pidge earlier and I was going through one of her books on plants and I found these… they signify declarations of love.”

Shiro stayed silent for a few dobashes, and Keith hoped he wasn’t angry or upset about his choice of what to paint.  
“I just wanted you to have a reminder that no matter what you’ve been through, I love you. Every part of you.” The younger man placed a hand on Shiro’s cheek, turning his face so their eyes met. A part of Shiro still thought that he didn’t deserve to have something with such beauty on him, but he pushed that thought away and met Keith’s hopeful grin with a smile. The black paladin would never fully grasp how truly magnificent he is, and always has been, at least, in Keith’s eyes.

Shiro isn't a weapon.

He’s a masterpiece.

**Author's Note:**

> maybe i'll do a part 2 someday where shiro gets to paint keith instead


End file.
